Friday, April 20, 2012

Fenway Park Open House Vids: "I Got A Red Shah-pie, Too!"

What a madhouse at Fenway! I took a million pictures which will have to be a separate post. But for now, a couple of videos. Watch the first one before reading the description below, or it'll ruin it.

So Millar is doing his show from the center field warning track, and at one point, a kid 18 feet above him decides he wants to throw a ball down to have it signed. Millar agrees, on the condition the kid doesn't hit his co-host's head, or any of the laptops, or the probably breakable table they're sitting at. The kid is right on target with his throw. MIllar signs, but his throw back doesn't reach. A woman gets the ball, and her throw fails as well. And it goes right to me. The odds of me filming all of this were remote, but for whatever reason, I decided to record just before this all happened. So anyway I catch the ball off the wall on the bounce with my left hand as I film with the right. I switch each item to the opposite hand, and then call an audible to go with the difficult almost-straight-up overhand throw, instead of the underhand lob. I make my throw (you can see my bent arm going past the camera very briefly) and I hit the target. Kid makes the catch and everyone cheers. All these years watching players A. play the carom and B. toss balls up to fans pays off!

And here's a brief look inside the dugout.

We were allowed to go through the tunnel to the dugout, then out onto the field and around the track. The lines were unbelievable. Okay, just one pic so you get an idea of the lines:

And then you had the one on the third base side. It was really two sets of people. My line entered the field through the dugout, then went left around to center. Others entered from center and did a full loop, but weren't allowed to go down the tunnel we had come up. But what you see here is only the line ON the field. You should have seen how long they were underneath, just to get TO the field.

Wow, it's after midnight. Happy 100th birthday, Fenway Park!

Bonus, 1:03 a.m.: Green Monster tix available right on the team web site for Saturday and Sunday. Two together, even. Other seats available too. Sunday had already been available online, but now Saturday has been added, and there's even a T on today's game, so keep watching that if you're still trying to get in for face value.

How was the parking situation? I was thinking of going and then searched for "fenway open house" on Twitter, saw the police department was having problems with traffic, and decided not to. I've been on four tours and never been on the field.

I have a new "secret street." It's a mile + walk, but for some reason there are no meters, no signs saying anything, and I've parked there all day several times without ever getting a ticket or even seeing a ticket on the surrounding cars. So while I almost decided to just go right to Fenway and see if I could get a free spot on Lansdowne or Yawkey since you CAN park there when there isn't a game, I just figured go to my usual place (partly because I didn't know how long I'd be inside.) So from what you said, I'm glad I completely avoided the immediate area in my car.

I feel like now that the years of construction projects are over, if you go on a tour this year (it's a "new" tour anyway, they say), I feel like you should get on the warning track.